The present invention relates to a space-saving, automated parking system, and several subassemblies therefor, including a shuttle mechanism for picking up a vehicle and transferring it from a parking stall to a turntable mechanism, a device associated with the shuttle for extending its reach into a parking stall and thereby reducing the overall required diameter of the building, and mechanism for feeding hydraulic and electrical lines to a shuttle as it moves on and off a turntable.
Parking and storage space for vehicles, especially automobiles, has become scarce in urban areas and is at a premium especially in city center areas where high density shopping and business buildings are located. Additionally, parking space is becoming expensive to provide even in suburban or regional shopping centers where land prices adjacent such shopping centers are ever constantly escalating.
It is accordingly a broad object of the present invention to provide a vehicle parking and storage system that requires a minimum of ground space, thereby reducing the cost of land for the parking and storage system and allowing land that would otherwise be utilized for parking and storage of vehicles to be more gainfully and profitably used as commercial or residential centers. It is another broad object of the present invention to provide a multi-story parking tower whereby vehicles left by their owners at a ground floor are automatically received, parked and stored, and retrieved. It is still a further object of the present invention to provide such a multi-story vehicle parking and storage tower that utilizes a minimum of mechanism so that the system can be built reasonably economically, and so that maximum parking and retrieval speeds of on the order of one minute or less can be achieved for each vehicle.